So it seemed to be about time to organise another Guadalajara Photo Tour. I’ve alerted various forums and my flickr contacts, and here’s hoping it all goes well. Instead of setting a time and date, I’ve put up a poll to choose, if you’re in the area feel free to vote on a combination that suits you here. If you’re not in the area then please don’t vote, so those who can make it get a say in when they can come. It was good fun last time and no mistake, a cantina usually features in it somewhere and the rest is wandering around in the sun and chatting about apertures and suchlike with likeminded peeps…
Last time we got photos published in various blogs, which was nice and it was grand to meet up with a few of the other Flickeros.
**Cack-handed tech alert**: Any readers know how to embed database driven data into Drupal pages? I’m having an in-at-the-deep-end go at getting a listings site up and running and it’s all new to me. Still trying to find some PHP classes… have an eyeful here of my noodlings… login: test, pword: password none too impressive for the minute, I’ll grant you…
It’s been a rum old week of waiting on projects, actually doing them and then not much else save canine-related activities. Actually, Monica’s done a nice job of summing it up over at chilicatinla- mellow weekend. Hopefully this week will be a bit more productive. The heat doesn’t help of course, if you haven’t got anything done by 1pm, you can almost guarantee it won’t get done until the sun disappears around 7pm and things start to cool off. Added to that my trusty laptop started having issues with overheating and took to shutting itself down every 45 minutes or so, so I had to take it to the laptop dry cleaners. It’s now running as well as ever and fair sparkles as the Tapatian sun glints of its keys.
Our coffee maker’s not in such good shape mind, I took it to the fix-everything shop, “Amigo del hogar” in Santa Tere, on Monday they said it’d be ready the next day. I called by and it wasn’t, “but it should be ready for the weekend once we get such and such a part”, then “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. I pointed out their phone didn’t work anyway. They said they knew that, hence the instructions… Still waiting…
I’ve misplaced my PDA charger so I’m also hardly listening to podcasts at the minute, which is a mixed blessing as I’ve started reading again, Jasper Fford’s The Fourth Bear and Aberystwyth, Mon Amour. Still it shouldn’t be too hard to find a 5V adapter. I’ll wait till I’m halfway through the books I reckon. In other Podcast news, Paul and Judy from Total PodCastrophe got an article on them in their local newspaper which is a great read to learn about the ins and outs of podcasts.
We went to a new restaurant and bar on Friday night, Chez Pierre (Calle Espaa and Mariano Otero or thereabouts, (33) 36152212 ). A very similar menu to Pierrot but with a Las Vegas style decor depicting Paris and itinerant musicians playing sax, piano, accordian and flute (which in German is a Queer Flute, because you play it at a queer angle apparently, thanks Daniel…). Excellent food at an mid-upper end price range. Steaks all round of course. Cheeses are also recommended once again. Then on to a newish club where there was a cover band playing on Ave.Mexico and Americas and lots of 19-year-old CEPE students dressed to the nines and 20 peso beers. Not a bad night all in all.
Victor and Jana are back from Ecuador and have a load of photos with the occasional commentary, looks like they had lots of exercise and easter-related fun. It’ll be nice to catch up with them soon.
Yesterday took us to the Baratillo where I snapped a few photos but otherwise couldn’t find anything worth buying, although we were tempted to go halves on an LCD projector (300 bucks). Monica bought The Prestige which I’ll review some time soonish (dominguera (Sundayish)). Not sure what this shop sells, but judging by the name and logo it’s probably not pleasant:
and here are some others of the type of rubbish you can buy:
There’re a few websites in the offing, not sure whether they’ll come to fruition though. In the meantime, there’s a few new features in this blog: subscribe by email, Spanish word of the day and a box that displays the headlines from my other spanish language web design blog all either down on the right or for IE6 users, left at the bottom of the blog.
Over the last week Daniel and I managed to get through the entire Christopher Eccleston series of Doctor Who and it’s “arsum” was gripped throughout now I just have to find the latest series. I also got hold of the Decembrists and new Modest Mouse albums, but I’ve not had a chance to listen just yet thanks to the aforementioned PDA situation. (I could listen to them on my lappy, but I can’t listen to stuff with words in while I’m working…).
Me murdering Jaraba de Palo’s La Flaca has reached 2000+ views on YouTube. Weren’t they going to start sharing the ad revenue with uploaders at some point?
Annelise, thanks for your question about Mexican desserts. I’m on it. I have to do a bit of research first then I’ll post all about it. There is definitely a chile infused dark chocolate, but I’ve not seen it round here. They’re available in Trader Joes in the States though, but I don’t know if TJs has made it to Oklahoma yet.
And that’s your bumper lot for now. It’s been an odd week like I say what with trying to come to terms with recent losses and a sporadic project schedule so hopefully posting will return to relative normality this week. Apologies for the disjointed nature of this post (and pretty much all others) however I don’t think I used the word “anyroad” this time and for that we must be grateful.
obviously he’s missing his other family in L.A., but just to show how he’s adapting to life south of the tropic of Cancer, here he is refreshing himself with chilled mineral water on Sunday’s Via Recreativa:
and here’s the famous “Daily Doggy Dinner Dance” along with feeding instructions:
I just heard on Saturday evening that my other grandmother, Grandma, my Dad’s mum, Lillian passed away peacefully and altogether unexpectedly in her sleep. She was 89 and to say she had a good innings would be an understatement. Nonetheless we are all pretty shocked and still coming to terms with our loss of a much-loved, fantastic, kind, generous person in our lives. I’ll attempt some kind of eulogy in these pages soon, but in the meantime, I just wanted to share what was going on.
Here’s Grandma last December haggling over gourmet cheeses in Taunton’s Saturday morning market:
Just a suggestion for next year’s Judea, have the 200 or so “elements of the security forces” dress up as Romans to add a more authentic touch to the procedings. As you’ll see from the photos, all you need is red and gold fabric and the brush from your kitchen broom… and it’ll make the arrests of public drunks even more watchable. (See the Informador’s version of events here.)
So it was quite an experience. First off, travel directions from Guadalajara: from Lazaro Cardenas, take the Carretera a Chapala, go about 3 km, to just after the bottom of the first hill, and turn off to the right at the San Martin de las Flores exit, cross the overpass, the railway and then go about 2 km and you’re there. Park, entrust your car to local 7-year-old entrepreneurs and wander through the impromptu market that’ll be bustling with people selling empanadas, chairs, relics, hats and refreshments until you get to the hill and wander up it. Bring walking shoes, sun tan lotion, and water. And a camara. And while you’re at it with your camera, make sure you’ve cleaned the lense or you’ll get home and realise every pinche photo has a smudge on it. Arse.
Anyroad, I got to the top of the hill at around 3ish, where the well-graffitied cross is and there’s a nice view but no shade, luckily they were selling sliced fruit up there so I sat down and watched the masses assemble while listening to Wait, Wait don’t tell me, the NPR news quiz on me iPaq.
By around 6pm the hill was packed, 100,000 people apparently, all jostling to see Jesus carrying his cross up the hill escorted by the aforementioned Romans and local TV camera crews. I had to stop several times on the way to the top to catch my breath, but fair play to Jesus, he managed it in one, very fast, climb. I’m not sure what happened when he got to the top. I thought there was going to be a full-on crucifixion, but I think that only happens in Venezuela or somewhere. I also left before Judas got hanged. I was more interested in taking photos of the crowds from the bottom of the hill. So all in all, I’m well glad I made it there. I think I was the only gringo there, I’m glad I didn’t wear shorts to make it even more obvious.
Plans for today: Watch Howl’s Moving Castle, defluff my laptop (it’s starting to shut down due to overheating. NOT good, especially for next week’s workload), walk the perrito, check there’s no more black widow spiders in my office (*shudder*), and in the evening go on a tour of the expiatorio area of Gwod with José and Fernando, where there’s special events this evening at around 8 onwards. Let the good times roll.
It’s every bit as quiet as last year. I took Atticus to buy the paper this morning and he didn’t even have any traffic to chase.
Anyroad, I’m going through my photos to enter them in Amour Fou’s “Cortosia de Amour Fou” competition. Rules here in Spanish. For the photography prize the theme is “anything to do with cinema”, and the prize is 2 weeks’ free rentals. So far there are no entries… Anyroad, I’ve been meaning for a while to take some shots around Gwod for a Hitchcock series, illustrating some of his most famous (and easiest to depict photographically) films; I’m looking for:
The Birds – Los Pájaros Psycho – Psicosis North by Northwest- Con la muerte en los talones Vertigo – Vértigo Strangers on a Train – ¿? Extraos en un tren Rope – Soga, La The 39 Steps – 39 escalones, Los Number Seventeen – Número 17 The Lodger – El inquilino Rear Window – Ventana indiscreta, La
Some of the Spanish titles don’t quite coincide: North by Northwest = With Death at the Heels… fr’instance. And I so I’ll probably have a wander tomorrow completing the set. Also, if all goes well this avo I’ll join the throngs for the catholic goings on in San Martin de los Flores.
Watched Adios a Lenin, last night. Sita was initially sceptical as with my accent she thought it was going to be about the Beatles. Turned out to be a very good German film. Meanwhile, Amour Fou is projecting La Vida de Brian tonight, since it’s Easter… A fine choice of film if you ask me.
Also I learnt today it would take 38 odd cups of my favourite caffeine drink, Starbucks Grande Coffee, to kill me thanks to this helpful death-by-caffeine site (thanks StumbleUpon). Mathematicians may care to work out my weight from this. Please do not publish your findings in the comments section.
Seems like everyone’s gone or is going to the beach. Anyroad, not complaining, I’ve had my fair share of holidays of late. Still waiting for various projects to materialise. Next week should be busy if the people who’ve said they’ve stuff for me to do give me stuff…
So today I played a lot of Scrabble, getting back in the 1000s again. There’s a shake-up of the SOWPODS (UK/international -USA version) allowed words in a month or so so that’s going to throw me off for a bit if they mess with my 2-letter words. I’d like to put in a request for “Zot”, Sita assures me it’s the sound anteaters make and it must have been an oversight when they wrote the dictionary.
Also got inspired by a comment on this flowery photo saying that they look like Trollz so I did meself a photoshopped hybrid monstery thing:
And also I started buggering around with the e-commerce plugin for wordpress. Seems alright, i’m having some issues with permalinks and .htaccess, but nothing insurmountable. They hard part is thinking of products. Vaguely considering some framed photography with frames from Tonala. Very, very much in progress here don’t be surprised to see an illegible mess… And if things stay quiet this week, then I’ll be rejigging this blog page yet again, cos I can’t get it to display right in (accursed, plagues be upon it) IE 6.
Other stuff… Spanish phrase of the week, courtesy of the taxi driver from the airport: Una lluvia mojapendejos. A type of rain that only idiots* would get wet in. Ie. short and sweet.
* insert regional slang of choice here. Twunt for example…
So much to post about last week, so I’ll probably end up not writing anything so just in case, highlights included: putting the world to rights with Roberto, fine eats and DIY with Martin & Sally, painless tax filing with Sally’s accountant, catching up with lots of friends and family, Guelaguetza (sp?) oaxacan restaurant in central LA, Frolf with Matt (FRisbee goLF, although I’m told only newbies call it that as it sounds far too precious), red zinfandel comparative tasting with Meg, boozing with Liz, and hassle-free immigration and dog repatriation. and more I probably forgot. So that’s that for now, on to what inspired me to blog today.
Toilet repairs.
So the downstairs toilet wasn’t filling/flushing right, so I had to repeat the DIY shop experience I had in Santa Cruz a few years back when I went to buy a replacement part. I spent a few minutes explaining what I needed with hand gestures and everything, a flapper thing basically, and the bloke got what I was after. It’s called a flapper. Today I went to Santa Tere to a Tlapaleria (DIY shop, more common than the Spanish Spanish, Ferreteria) and had the same conversation in Spanish. Turns outs it’s called un Flapper. Things they never teach you at school…
Atticus is settling in. He’s going to be sleeping in my office to keep him from barking at the various sounds that occur during the night here (road sweepers, door-to-door salesmen, Ralphy Gutierrez, peripatetic mariachi bands, etc.) He met Juan, the water bloke today and barked away at him. (Bonafont’s just hiked the price up to 23 pesos a garafon and I think Atticus sensed that…) but I’ll forgive him anything after his exemplary behaviour on the plane and in the airports yesterday. As I wrote that he started barking up a storm again… ah well.
For proper blogging, there’s always M & D’s travelogue over at ChiliCatInLa.blogspot.com they’re in Oaxaca… And that’s all for today, glad to be back home again and looking forward to catching up with the Guanatos crowd and seeing all the semana santa shenanigans. Hasta pronto!
More than half of these’ll just get you funny looks when spoken in Guanatos, but if you’re heading Madrid way check out these 12 phrases to get by with in the Spanish capital… ¡Qué guay, tio! Son de puta madre… Aah, the Españolitos and their funny ways…
New Flickr toys from Dumpr include this museumr one. Vanity publishing:
cos it’s a huge waste of time. But it was that or Pacman and we got our taxes done today and had the dog innoculated against every plague going around so I don’t feel too bad… Anyroad, it led me to this page of winning entries for a “Make up a Jack Handey Deep Thought” compo and for that I thank it… almost as good as the old-as-the-hills originals. My faves?
Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.
Once, I wept for I had no shoes. Then I came upon a man who had no feet. So I took his shoes. I mean, it’s not like he really needed them, right?
your one-stop-shop for schipperke animated gifs and other delights…
Click the lovingly rendered graphic below to go there:
don’t forget to sign their guestbook and web design like it’s 1999… in other news, Atticus met his “cousin” today and is now knackered. 7 days to “Schipperkes on a Plane!” insaniddy.
